Every Monday throughout June, The Byrd Theatre celebrated Pride Month with #MonGays, a series spotlighting the LGBTQ community. This week, Black Pride RVA launches Black Pride Month with their selection of Pariah.

What do you do when your family doesn’t understand part of who you are? Even worse, what do you do if they disapprove? This is the challenge facing Alike, the young protagonist of Pariah, but these questions may have also been running through the minds of the founders of Black Pride RVA two years ago.

From the erasure of the black trans women that threw the first bricks at Stonewall to the alarmingly high rates of HIV infection among minority LGBTQ Americans, the existence of racism in the queer world is well documented. Black Pride RVA was founded as a protest, not against any group or organization in the Richmond scene (as some rumors have it), but rather as a positive protest, to celebrate the dual identities of queer people of color.

When Virginia Pride reached out to Black Pride RVA about sponsoring a week of MonGays — a special grand finale week in July: Black Pride Month — their leadership knew they “wanted to participate to increase our visibility and highlight the broader diversity of the LGBTQ community in Richmond.”

That same desire to shine a spotlight on the diversity of the queer community also led them to choose Pariah, a film that focuses on the struggle of a butch black girl to come to terms with her sexuality amidst her conservative family. “Our team was drawn by the story of a masculine-leaning female lead and her journey to acceptance,” Black Pride’s leadership stated. “We wanted a film that showcases LGBTQ women of color since their stories are not often told on the big screen, despite the fact women are more likely to identify as LGBTQ in the US.”

That lack of visibility makes it harder for others in the same situation as Alike to come out. A dearth of positive role models and stories is one of many theories mooted as to why queer people of color face higher levels of depression. The leaders of Black Pride RVA know the struggle all too well.

“Representation is important,” they stated. “Showing Pariah on the big screen helps to lift up the stories of queer women of color who make up the fabric of the Black LGBTQ community. We hope the audience will see the struggle to be yourself is difficult, and in the face of difficulty there is black joy, resilience, and acceptance.”

Black Pride RVA celebrated its inaugural festivities last year to help queer people of all colors in Richmond to overcome that struggle and move collectively towards the positive side of being LGBTQ. “Our work is all about lifting the unique voices and lived experiences of Black LGBTQ persons in the greater Richmond area,” they stated. “This is why we created Black Pride RVA weekend.”

Tonight’s screening of Pariah at the Byrd Theatre will offer the audience the chance to join Black Pride RVA in their celebration of our Commonwealth’s queer people of color. “Pariah highlights the power of voice, resilience, and acceptance. This is a movie Richmond needs to see.”

Pariah marks the fifth and final week of MonGays — a queer film series celebrating the LGBTQ+ community every Monday during Pride Month and the first week of Black Pride Month — tonight at 7pm at the Byrd Theatre. The 2nd annual Black Pride RVA weekend is July 18-21. Check out www.blackpriderva.com for details.

Every Monday throughout June, The Byrd Theatre will celebrate Pride Month with #MonGays, a series spotlighting the LGBTQ community. This week, a film that should need no introduction: Paris Is Burning.

Do you wish Blanca Evangelista were your mother? Has Lil Papi become your latest crush? Is Pray Tell the person you aspire to be? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you’re certainly a fan of Pose. But how much do you know about the award-winning documentary that inspired it: Paris Is Burning?

This season of Pose, house mother Blanca becomes convinced that New York City’s underground Ballroom scene is about to go mainstream, thanks to Madonna’s hit single, “Vogue.” What she doesn’t know in the show is that it will take another three decades before ball culture truly approaches the realm of common knowledge and begins to accept the scene’s black, brown, and trans roots.

When Virginia Pride first approached Health Brigade about sponsoring week 4 of MonGays at the Byrd, Heather Turbyne-Pollard, the free clinic’s Director of Resources & Philanthropy, immediately knew which to choose. “NYC ball culture has been recently reintroduced to younger audiences in a major way, with Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s TV series, Pose,” Turbyne-Pollard stated. “This series has been groundbreaking for its inclusion of the largest transgender cast ever for a scripted series, and that’s pretty magical. Knowing this, we wanted to provide some exposure of where ball culture began, with Jennie Livingston’s cult classic documentary film, Paris Is Burning.”

The erasure of the black and brown individuals that created ballroom culture began as soon as the scene’s popular resonance began. Madonna’s hit song — inspired by the 1980s invention of voguing by queer people of color — ignores the dance’s actual creators, choosing instead to pay homage to white celebrities unrelated to ball culture, such as Gene Kelly and Ginger Rogers. Although director Jennie Livingston failed to pay her documentary’s participants as promised, her film at least re-centered the phenomenon on its actual progenitors.

Jamie Burch, Health Brigade’s Resource & Development Associate, sees tonight’s screening of Paris Is Burning as a chance to celebrate their organization’s long history of serving the LGBTQ community in Central Virginia. “The houses and families celebrated in Paris Is Burning remind us of the folks we’ve been serving in Richmond for almost 50 years,” said Burch.

Watching this season of Pose begin to grapple with the devastation HIV/AIDS wrought upon the queer community, and especially its people of color, has not been the revelation for Health Brigade’s staff that it has been for mainstream society. Back when it was the Fan Free Clinic, their staff knew the level of death and despair all too well.

“One of Health Brigade’s proudest moments in the 80s was our response to the AIDS pandemic, sending out care teams to support those living — and dying — with AIDS,” Burch explained. “Our volunteers warmly embraced those who had been abandoned by family, friends, the community and society. In the 90s, as HIV/AIDS became a manageable, chronic disease, we shifted our focus to HIV/AIDS education, prevention, testing and support services. We became known as ‘the’ place where you could obtain services and support if you were infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.”

Health Brigade hopes that by elevating Paris Is Burning to the big screen at the Byrd, they can help to memorialize that dark era and the struggles of those who lived through it, while also providing a night of hope and joy centered on the stories of queer people of color. “We love Paris Is Burning because, although many of the individuals featured in the film were navigating the complexities of AIDS, racism, poverty, violence, and homophobia, they managed to somehow band together to form an amazing outlet for celebrating their identities and supporting one another,” said Burch. “We think that’s something worth reminding folks of, especially today.”

“We love the idea of adding some extra celebration of Pride during June,” Burch continued. “MonGays is made from a few of our favorite things: our beloved LGBTQ+ community, neighboring nonprofits, and a local institution of Richmond culture: the Byrd Theatre.” Health Brigade hopes some of tonight’s attendees will turn out in their ball finest, whatever their chosen category may be.

Paris Is Burning marks the fourth and penultimate week of MonGays — a queer film series celebrating the LGBTQ community every Monday during Pride Month — tonight at 7pm at the Byrd Theatre.

Will Rosenstock, Bust Crew, and Venue Skateboards are bringing Richmond’s best skateboarders to the Byrd Theatre next Friday with Nightmare Van.

The crusty, gritty streets of Richmond are a haven for a familial group of skaters that seems to keep on growing. And on June 28, they’ll hit the big screen, as Nightmare Van, a video by Will Rosenstock, will premiere at the Byrd Theatre in Carytown.

Rosenstock recently had footage used as part of Quasi Skateboards’ Mother, a long-form promotional video featuring Gilbert Crockett, another Richmond local. Rosenstock has also filmed several videos for local skate shop Venue Skateboards, formerly known as Dominion. Nightmare Van exclusively features Bust Crew, a collective or “crew” of skaters in the Richmond area. It was produced in association with Venue, but created entirely by Rosenstock himself.

According to Rosenstock, Gilbert Crockett basically put Richmond on the map for the skate community. Crockett’s debut video appearance, which made up the opening segment in skate shoe company Fallen Footwear’s 2008 video Ride The Sky, prompted his return from Los Angeles to Richmond. Once back in Richmond, Crockett and Rosenstock linked up and began working together. Their friendship and collaboration has been consistent ever since.

Maury Blankinship; Photo by Thomas Goldman

Existing in a relatively small city, the Richmond skate scene is very tight-knit. Venue Skateboards-sponsored skaters like Gilbert Crockett and Daniel Ravenal, as well as Venue owner Maury Blankinship, all tend to be on the same page about skating. “We’re all really tight, we all go on trips — we’re basically like a family,” Blankinship said. “They do a lot of stuff for the shop for nothing; they help the shop out a lot.”

Since the internet became available on a widespread basis, many brick-and-mortar retail stores have been in decline, and skate shops are no exception. But Blankinship has taken matters into his own hands, and by doing so, has seen an increase in the profit margin compared to the previous years. “This year so far has been far better,” he said. “All of the sewing and screenprinting [that] I do personally saves a lot of money, and the profits are larger.”

According to Blankinship, Venue’s skateboarders are a big help; they ride Venue skateboards, spread the shop’s name and logo around, help with promotion, and never ask for discounts. Rosenstock helps Blankinship maintain Venue’s Instagram account to help out with their social media marketing. “I’m letting Will have the whole spotlight for this premiere, since he worked hard on the video,” Blankinship said. “Let that be his own thing.”

Daniel Ravenal is only 22, but has lived in Richmond all of his life, and grew up skating in the city. According to Ravenal, looking up to the older generation of skaters and shop-sponsored riders like Blankinship, Crockett, and Rosenstock paved the way for his progression. “Having Venue here, and that community here, and to be a part of that, definitely changes the way you look at everything,” Ravenal said. “Richmond has a really good skate scene for the size of the city, I think people do look at Richmond skateboarding and respect it.”

Jon Rowe; Photo by Thomas Goldman

Ravenal is getting “flowed” product — given free goods in exchange for public endorsement — from Quasi Skateboards and Adidas, and is part of another Richmond skate crew called Inbred. According to Ravenal, Inbred grew from the younger generation of Richmond skateboarders, which he was part of. After recognition from Rosenstock and Venue rider Ty Beall, they all just became friends.

“I’m very grateful to be here and film with Will,” Ravenal said. “It is nice to get recognition from those videos, and he does a really good job with them.”

According to Rosenstock, moving out to L.A. some years ago along with Beall and fellow Venue rider Jon Rowe helped build the connections that would lay the foundation for Bust Crew and the Venue videos to come. “We would meet people and they would recognize Jon or Ty, and go ‘What are these Virginia kids doing out here?’” Rosenstock said.

In fact, it was Rowe who inspired Nightmare Van‘s name, according to Rosenstock. Rowe had purchased a minivan and loaded it up with all sorts of power tools, saws, and other bizarre tools. Rosenstock, Rowe, Beall, and another filmer, Max Mattoon, would seek out abandoned buildings, dingy alleys and rundown houses. The crew would get into “bad kid things,” Rosenstock said, breaking windows and exploring decayed ruins, giving themselves the name “Nightmare Crew.”

The nightmare van; Photo by Ty Beall

“Anything you see in a Jon Rowe part, you’ll quickly realize it’s not a spot — it’s some piece of shit he found that looks cool,” Rosenstock said. “He’s just trying to find the worst possible thing ever to skate.”

This leads Rowe to some well-guarded spots in particular, like the SunTrust Bank corporate office on East Main Street. It has the kinds of marble ledges and stair steps that skateboarders go crazy for, but it’s heavily patrolled by security, and skateboarders can rarely skate there for more than 10 minutes without being chased off or having the cops called on them. But that didn’t stop Rowe from getting footage there — a fact that Rosenstock particularly appreciates.

“There’s this one trick, in particular, we probably went back for, like, 10 times,” Rosenstock said. “It was so relieving when he finally got it, because it would be such a battle. But he’d immediately start going for it — no time to warm up.”

Jon Rowe; Photo by Thomas Goldman

The scrappy aesthetic of the city’s pro skateboarders has made them yet another local culture experiencing consequences from gentrification. As Richmond expands and new construction sprouts up around the city, some regular skate spots get destroyed, and Rosenstock finds that not much good comes from the new construction that replaces it. The new buildings and fixtures are usually built with knobs — hard, bolted-on objects intended to stop skateboarders from skating obstacles.

“We’re not getting anything in return, and we’ve lost a lot of awesome spots over the last few years,” Rosenstock said. “The charm of Richmond, for us, is that everything is so crusty and rundown.”

According to Rosenstock, during the creation of Nightmare Van, he and the crew usually took trips on weekends to places like Baltimore, North Carolina or D.C., just to get out of Richmond and skate different spots for film purposes. Sometimes the trips were even longer than that. “We took a week and a half in St. Louis,” Rosenstock said. “We did an Atlanta trip for like a week. I didn’t get to go, but they still stacked a bunch of footage out there.”

Cory Bittle; Photo by Thomas Goldman

Whereas recent videos filmed by Rosenstock typically featured the same lineup of local skaters — Gilbert Crockett, Daniel Ravenal, Jon Rowe — Nightmare Van will have a few skaters that are relatively new to the scene in Richmond. Cory Bittle, from the Virginia Beach area, will have his first video segment filmed with Rosenstock. Bittle’s approach to skateboarding impressed the director.

“He doesn’t want to skate unless he’s just pushing himself as hard as he can,” Rosenstock said. “He will find the perfect spot for himself to do that specific trick, and he’ll either do it, or get so broke off and work so hard for it, [he’ll] probably come back later.”

Pat Burke is a name that some in the skate community may remember from the 2009 $lave Skateboards video, Radio Television. Burke’s segment in that video featured him throwing himself down huge sets of stairs and over large gaps.

“Everybody’s got their thing, and Pat’s is just flying down huge stair sets,” Rosenstock said. “I’ve never really filmed somebody who’s that consistent at jumping down huge gaps and stair sets.”

After Radio Television, Burke seemingly became irrelevant to the skate scene for a decade. However, he recently moved to Richmond, and after filming a clip with Rosenstock, the two found some chemistry. Burke’s been skating in Richmond for a little over a year now.

“He is just a wild animal when it comes to skating, he’s almost too motivated,” Rosenstock said. “He will get, like, four clips in a day, and that’s not enough for him.”

Most of the skaters involved in the video work full-time jobs, some of them doing hard manual labor or holding down a nine-to-five. “They’ll still bust ass and put out amazing video footage, just because they love the shop and they love to skate,” Rosenstock said. He’s certain that the results of their commitment will impress all Nightmare Van viewers. “I think people will realize, the dudes that ride for Venue are on another level of loyalty.”

The video premiere for Nightmare Van will take place starting at 5 PM on Friday, June 28, at the Byrd Theatre, located at 2908 W Cary St. in Carytown. Admission is free, and Will Rosenstock will be there selling physical copies of the video for anyone who might want to keep it on repeat for days to come, properly appreciating all the blood, sweat, and time put into it.

Every Monday throughout June, The Byrd Theatre will celebrate Pride Month with #MonGays, a series spotlighting the LGBTQ community. This week, Saturday Church brings us an up-close look at the joys and struggles of LGBTQ youth.

Did you know that just 9% of young people identify as LGBTQ, yet queer kids account for roughly 40% of youth experiencing homelessness? Ted Lewis did. As the Executive Director of Side By Side (formerly known as ROSMY), Lewis is intimately aware of the challenges which face children who aren’t both straight and cisgender. Their experience working in queer inclusion stretches across a decade of professorial as well as administrative positions at UNC Charlotte and the University of Richmond before they finally landed at Side by Side three years ago.

Although public opinion towards the queer community has shifted drastically over the last several years, that doesn’t mean the LGBTQ community no longer faces persecution or prejudice. “With the tremendous progress our community has made, it can be difficult to remember that our LGBTQ+ youth still struggle with acceptance from their families, and sadly are often kicked out or separated from their family of origin,” saidd Lewis. Children represent an especially vulnerable population of queer individuals, as they lack the means to support themselves and are often still trying to figure out who they are.

When Virginia Pride first approached Lewis about sponsoring the third week of MonGays, Lewis realized a screening at the Byrd Theatre, Central Virginia’s premier destination for film, would “allow the audience to see inside a community or experience different from their own. Movies can help explain cultural differences, educate, and build empathy. We were excited to participate in MonGays, because it provides our community with a unique experience to better understand our youth and their needs.”

Saturday Church, a film by director Damon Cardasis, follows the tale of teenage Ulysses, a shy and effeminate boy, struggling with the responsibilities of being the “man of the house” after his father’s passing. Surrounded by his conservative family, Ulysses struggles with his gender identity, coping through his creation of a fantasy world filled with dance and music. After Ulysses meets a transgender woman and is brought to “Saturday Church,” a program for LGBTQ youth, his life becomes more joyful as well as complicated. He hides his love of voguing and the NYC ball scene from his family for as long as he can, until he’s forced to decide who he wants to be, even if that means risking his relationship with those he loves most.

“Side by Side was looking for a film that highlighted the work we do specifically around family rejection and experiences of housing instability, but we also wanted a film that was fun and filled with joy!” explained Lewis. “Saturday Church is a beautiful film that highlights both the struggles of coming out and facing rejection, as well as the joy we feel when we find communities of support. We wanted a film that highlighted this journey while also showcasing the beauty of someone coming into their authentic self.”

Ulysses’ story is all too representative of the journey many LGBTQ youth in Central Virginia are forced to undertake after they are kicked out of their family homes for who they are and/or who they love. Recently Side by Side, along with their partners at Nationz Foundation and the Virginia Anti-Violence Project, launched a new Host Homes Program to connect LGBTQ youth aged 18-25 who are experiencing homelessness with stable, safe, and affirming housing. “We work to ensure they have wrap around services and a community of support to get them to stability and a more permanent housing situation,” elaborated Lewis.

“One screening of an affirming film like Saturday Church won’t change the fact that queer youth are 120 percent more likely than their heterosexual/cisgender peers to experience homelessness, but it may be enough to inspire one family to take in a child,” added Wyatt Gordon, Creative Director of MonGays. “It may be enough to convince one kid that happy, stable homes are out there, or at least provide one evening during which they leave their worries behind, much like Ulysses does in the film.”

To Lewis, tonight’s screening of Saturday Church presents an opportunity to shift the way society thinks about protecting and caring for LGBTQ youth. “We hope the audience takes away that they play a key role helping our young people not only survive, but thrive,” they said. “Community care is what we need right now, and this film beautifully illustrates how community can come together to provide support, possibility, and love for our young people.”

Saturday Church will kick off the third week of MonGays — a queer film series celebrating the LGBTQ+ community every Monday during Pride Month — tonight at 7pm at the Byrd Theatre.

Every Monday throughout June, The Byrd Theatre will celebrate Pride Month with #MonGays, a series spotlighting the LGBTQ community. This week, Tangerine masterfully depicts the lives of black transgender sex workers on the big screen.

Have you ever sacrificed yourself for someone else to make a relationship work? After Sin-dee Rella took the fall for her drug dealing boyfriend and spent the past twenty-eight days in jail she expected some loyalty. When her best friend reveals that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with another woman while she was locked up, Sin-dee loses it and sets off on a comical quest for revenge across Los Angeles.

The plot sounds so classic and relatable it could be a beloved 1990s comedy. The genius behind Tangerine, Sean Baker’s breakaway success from 2015, is that it builds such a familiar storyline around a demographic we rarely see onscreen: black transgender sex workers.

Sin-dee and her best friend Alexandra aren’t treated as exotic or different. Their blackness, their transness, and their livelihoods earned from sex work are never presented as things to separate the characters or audience from one another.

On the contrary, the themes that stitch this diverse cast of characters together — friendship, sacrifice, and a yearning for love — are so timeless and universal that anyone who watches Tangerine will forget all of the markers society would typically evoke to prevent our connecting with characters like Sin-dee and Alexandra. As one movie critic put it: “Finally, a film with transgender main characters that doesn’t focus on the fact that they’re transgendered.”

Over eighty-eight minutes Tangerine allows the humanity of its two protagonists to naturally shine. From the intimate way in which they know each other’s best and worst tendencies to their choice of a simple donut shop as their favorite hangout spot to plan their shenanigans, Sin-dee and Alexandra are afforded a level of personification and richness normally denied trans characters.

Zakia McKensey, the Executive Director of Nationz Foundation, says she was “captivated by the trailer for the film, because the experiences of the characters are reflective of the lived experiences of transgender women in America.”

Society often judges those who engage in sex work to make a living; however, the isolation and prejudice that face many trans people often mean they are shut out from the formal economy. Tangerine “shows a perspective of the survival mode that some transgender women have to resort to, due to discrimination, oppression, unemployment, and being disowned by their families,” explained McKensey.

After the victories of LGBTQ rights under the Obama administration and the broader sea change of American public opinion from grudging tolerance to acceptance, it can be all too easy to believe that homophobia and transphobia is declining. Although that may be true at the societal level, the policies of the current administration don’t reflect this.

The Trump regime’s allowance of doctors to refuse to treat trans patients, adoption agencies to turn away potential LGBTQ parents, and homeless shelters to shut out trans people prove that the rainbow sheen of our modern era only goes so deep. This is why McKensey sees screening Tangerine at the Byrd as “an amazing opportunity to bring awareness to the transgender community and unite folks to understand that Transgender Women of Color are being murdered daily, denied so many rights, have no protections, and only want to live, exist, and be their best selves.”

The hostility of the moment only increases the importance of helping a broader swath of American society to identify with black trans people. So when Nationz Foundation was approached by Virginia Pride to sponsor week two of MonGays, McKensey made her decision in the blink of an eye. “I wanted to participate in MonGays because we’re excited to be an African American, trans-led organization afforded the opportunity to be a part of a monumental moment in Pride history here in Richmond.”

For those less interested in representation and queer politics than in pure filmmaking, Tangerine offers attendees the chance to watch a movie filmed entirely using three iPhone 5S devices. As the first phone-shot film to win at Sundance, Baker’s film earned him wide notoriety as a director pushing the envelope of technique in order to tell the poignant stories of the downtrodden. The simplicity of his cinematography will offer Richmonders an unfettered look at the humanity of black trans characters — one we seldom see on the silver screen.

Tangerine will kick off the second week of MonGays — a queer film series celebrating the LGBTQ+ community every Monday during Pride Month — tonight at 7pm at the Byrd Theatre.

Every Monday throughout June, The Byrd Theatre will celebrate Pride Month with #MonGays, a series spotlighting the LGBTQ community. This week, Kenyan film Rafiki kicks off the month in memorable fashion.

When was the last time you witnessed history unfolding and actually felt like humanity at its core was good? When was the last time you felt the Earth shift beneath you because you saw something brought to reality that you never thought could exist before? That’s the feeling thousands of Kenyans had last year when they saw Rafiki on the silver screen.

The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) banned Rafiki last year “due to its homosexual theme and clear intent to promote lesbianism in Kenya contrary to the law.” That law the KFCB was referring to was a statute that allows authorities in the country to imprison anyone for up to 14 years for being homosexual.

When director Wanuri Kahiu dreamed of making a film about the friendship and tender love that grows between two young women, Kena and Ziki, she thought the greatest tension she’d have to endure would be that of the plot: family and political pressures surrounding the topic of LGBTQ rights in Kenya. The KFCB felt her ending was too positive and hopeful, so they ordered her to change the story so that the girls would face consequences for their non-heteronormative behavior. When she refused, they banned Rafiki outright.

The prohibition against screening her critically acclaimed film took Kahiu to the country’s Supreme Court, where she argued that her freedom of speech rights as a director were being infringed upon. The court didn’t overturn the ban on “gay propaganda;” however, they decided that the government must allow Kahiu to screen her film at one theater for seven days, so that she may qualify for the Best Foreign Film award at the 91st Academy Awards.

For seven days the Prestige Cinema at the heart of Nairobi, the capital, screened Rafiki, meaning “friendship” in Swahili. Every single screening sold out. Rafiki went on to be shown at the Cannes International Film Festival. Buzz abounded that Rafiki may not only be nominated for Best Foreign Film but may actually be the first Kenyan-made film to take home the prize.

Kenya’ national film board, however, had other ideas. Siding with the KFCB that Rafiki was too “morally subversive,” they made sure that another film was chosen to receive the country’s nomination for the Academy Awards. The controversy surrounding the film sparked international interest in the rights of LGBTQ individuals in Kenya and across Africa.

At 7pm tonight, Rafiki will kick off the first night of MonGays, a queer film series celebrating the LGBTQ+ community every Monday during Pride Month, organized by Virginia Pride. With the help of MonGays Creative Director Wyatt Gordon, this week’s sponsor, Diversity Richmond, chose the movie due to its beautiful depiction of two black and bold young women who dare to live their truth. If you need a good laugh, cry, or date night tonight, there is no better place to be than MonGays.